Speaking of ‘Qinbibit’
December 17, 2008 at 2:08 pm 13 comments
Remember that article I said I have in my possession? The one that has more info on “YeMeAreg Simoch” than you can find on the internet, I promised to translate and publish forth to the world? Yes, that one! Well.. it turns out.. it wasn’t as interesting as I thought it was. What’s more Wikipedia and Selassie Ethiopian Glossary seem to have more to say on the subjects. So I thought, why won’t I post something in it’s place, something I wrote a while back based on a junior high memory?! I didn’t finish it because I failed failed to find a good title, as well as an impressive ending to it. Perhaps.. you can help. Double click on image for a better quality.
Enjoy!
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Inem | December 17, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I think it would have had an impressive end right there at page 2. Page 3 seems a prelude to more pages where the protective mothers and elders of qinbibit would be protrayed to depict the alubalta that goes like even the police could not penetrate qinbibit, the armaChuo of Addis. This is not out of grudge for the confiscated shera Chama, just my hulet santim. I can not figure out what the question was from the mission timihirt bet reason for your being correct, maybe I am dumb.
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sistu | December 17, 2008 at 3:35 pm
wowwwwww abesheet!!! that was by far the best thing i have read in long…….. can’t tell you how much i enjoyed it. ‘besew leslasa abebe teta’… uuuuu…. ‘i got sunshine on a cloudy day.. what can make me feel this way’ iyehonshibigno new. so well remembered, so well written. just exceptional! zebulqaw…
Please, [ma’am], i want some more…(and nobody drew lots to send me)
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Girum | December 17, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Well remembered!!….It helps me to cost only small minutes to back to the records I had,
The ‘ hind post card ‘ thing…remembers me ‘autograph’ like pages our chick class-mates used to compose, with the pictures of ‘Raju, Raja, Krishna’ with a motor cycle, and by the side of it a small but classic ‘Gitim’ stating ‘ Rose abeba lay, agegnehu entin, Yenema entna Yemejemeriyaye ‘….
By the way, we used to take the fight ‘Ketero’ for ‘Arb zetegn se’at’, Sene selassa is for the biggest fights, where more than one, 2 or 3 fights we tend to afford…(Lol)
Sene selassa was also the day we used to express ‘Romancing Ideas’ for the coolest chicks of the class. U know If she says ‘No’, no problem coz she will forget it when we’r back in september..Shame avoidal!! But the prob is that, sometimes the girls accept the offer, and during the ‘Kiremt’ her fam won’t allow her to go out of their house. In that case, We can’t date the chicks at the nearby ‘Church’, or ‘Bihere Tsige Menafesha’. This was my little experience in my sefer, ‘ Kera’.
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abesheet | December 18, 2008 at 5:37 am
An English question, Inem. It has more to do with character ‘qeRetsa’, and giving a realistic look at kids from divorced family, than making the brother sound dumb. “KeMission Yemetach” was some compliment back when we were at Kokebe Tsibah.
Well, Inem. I don’t think “even the police could not penetrate qinbibit” is an “alubalta”. It took “yager shimagelewoch” to “maStaReq” yeZero Sidist and “Qinbibit” lijoch, from what my cousin (who was beaten to a pulp once by YeQinbibit lijoch on his way back from school) told me. I heard they brought “Akafa ena doma”, LeQebena giBir lemaQreb, when that kid died after somebody from the other sefer hit him on the head with a stone in the school grounds, etcetra. It was over a girl, i believe.
To answer the real question: if you remember, in Yetnayet’s story, she was talking about how her sister can still see the bright side of life (after all she has been) when kindness or goodness usually takes Yetnayet by surprise (remember how flattered she was every time people she felt were too hip for her paid her attention, even when they are women). It’s as if she’s appologizing, all day/all night, for being who she is. Anywho, if it was an Amarigna dirset, that part would read “DeGnetin endeChirota bemisGana newu yemiQeblew” because people (especially Ethiopians) can be cruel to the defenceless. Women, instead of men, usually come to the rescue. That’s what that part is about (it’s also a part i took from my memory).
Oh my God, Girum! I’ve almost forgotten “Bihere Tsige Menafesha” existed. How awesome, remembering that! My favorite Indian actor was that guy on “Kohi naha a’honache nache”. Too hot for an indian actor, won’t you say?! Speaking of indian movies, do you know the woman who plays young “Mother India” (in.. *cough*.. Mother India) married the guy who plays her son (Birju?!) in real life? When i heard it first, i was like “What?! She married her son?!”. Silly, i know but that’s how it felt back then 🙂 . They are supposed to have sired a cute looking boy who has become a Bollywood superstar.
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Inem | December 18, 2008 at 9:58 am
I also thought of kemission yemeTach but then again the justifying word coming after it got me confused. if the word slezih is replaced by bihonim, I would have understood it. Or getsebahriy qeraChu sentence indemenderderia mejemeria bidereg. Just a thought. Abesheet the second point well taken, besides the apologizing part I also sensed an objectivism (a la Rand) element in Yetnayet, though her quintessential Ethiopian character is more altruistic. Indeed the cruelty in humans is not lost on me, though I would not “especially” attribute the innate trait solely to Ethiopians. Men also come to the rescue of the defenseless when the zeraf zeraf spouting hot blood race through their veins. I tend to believe generally women are more compassionate inspite of growing up hearing the horrifying results, in the myth/legend, of the test Atse Libnedingil put on a husband and wife to measure qoraTenet or cruelty.
I was also an avid movie semaCh, particularly the indian ones, until I grow up and turn exclusively to holywood ones. I don’t recognize that film abesheet, degmom aligolegolim aleN, maybe it was screened after I stopped mangoragoring kanchirE KanchirE….anyways you are bringing nice memories to me and I like it thanks a lot
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abesheet | December 18, 2008 at 10:32 am
I totally agree, Inem. I should have atleast mentioned it was an English Question and implied Mission Timhirt Bet students were supposed to be good at English. That way “Silezih” would have aided the “character geletsa”/revelation (not Qeretsa, sorry) more.
Finished reading on Objectivism (“The Anthem” was the only Rand book i read) and .. you are right! She’s more Objectivist (if that’s the word I want) than an Agnostic.
Well, for somebody who hasn’t set a foot out of Ethiopia, saying “we are more cruel than the rest of the world” sounds ludicrious. Not just because it can’t be even closely accurate but folks who call their country men names have never impressed me (which is why I faile to sympathise with Salman Rushdie and movies where the white journalist/philantropist/soldier is helped by the natives to espcape. Feels more like being a sell-out, instead of a hero, to me).
However, the fact that we are more “social” than the rest “social-animals” tend to create a certain “temesasai” tendencies, don’t you agree?. Abro Menoru, bahriyachinin amesaslotal biye eferalehu. Lik ende “Balina Mist”, keAnnd wenz yeminQeda eskimesil! No doubt poverty has as much to do with it as “abro menor” but when the rest of the world finds difference interesting, even exotic, we (like the traditional society we are, and refuse to not-be) take it as a personal insult. “Dekama siGegn lematQat, maan endeEthiopiawi” yalkut leza newu. Still.. it’s just a statement from the little i observed in my 30 something years of experience as an abesheet. I.E. nothing to do with actual facts. And oh yeah.. i’m guilty as sin of it too.
P.S. I agree with your earlier statement about sistu. She’s a smart cookie. So smart, infact, there was a time, not long ago either 😉 (she knows about it, don’t worry), in which i used to worry “When people read Sistu’s comments, they are gonne think i’m dumb or something”. She being so much younger than me hardly helped the matter (abesheet’s self-esteem has always been what it was). Later, i consoled myself with “all i can do is be myself and give it all I got. Hopefully that’d be enough for them and they’d like to stick around. If not, mechem Malguddani”. Luckily, it was! (for some of them anyway). No question what so ever the colors sistu and all my other readers brought with them added to it helped.
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Ankami | December 18, 2008 at 11:22 am
Hi Abesheet!!!
What means Quinbibit?
I can`t understand the documents, but I like very much the calligrafy.
If you let me I would hang in m blog and I woul like link the glosary.
Thanks
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Girum | December 18, 2008 at 11:54 am
Abesheet, Lol..those indian movies, how can I forget them!!…have been watching at the Video ‘bets’ for only 50cents,
Mother india =the father losing his hands, right? has she married her ‘son’ Lol….is he the who died @end?….
when I read, ‘ho nache nache’ it felt me like a need to disco infront of my frnds with no music playin’ around, always in my mind…
Koy yi yoha…. ho nache nache
Ko hi shoma…….ho nache nache
ko hi drowa……..ho nache nache
awa awa….
(shoulder rocking)and then that (‘ anget menekneking’)
Thanks for putting me on ‘ Yetizta feres’
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abesheet | December 18, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Ankami:
Just sent you a facebook message with demands. Get back to me when you get time.
Girum:
Yep, Birju is the “ametsegna” kid she finally kills. A wonderful movie, the only Indian movie i still like, by the way. The one movie my father cried over every time it played. Loved his mom to death, my dad did. Don’t you agree that we and the Indians have so much in common, culture wise? We, the Indians and the Russians (Russia used to be my favorite country in the world when I was young. Those comedies and satires, so unforgettable!).
By the way, has anybody sent you the Obama Dancing to Amharic Beat video? If not, check it out. Still wondering if his mock-punching Ellen has anything to do with her being a lesbian, implying a butch female (or if anybody else saw it that way) 🙂 .
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Inem | December 18, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I am glad you agreed Abesheet, you saved me from burying myself in the Aleqas, Desta and Kidaneweld, voluminous toms to brush my rusted sewasew. DinqEm alu, I wold not know where to find the books or even read them properly, siqebaTir new.
Atlas shrugged and the fountainhead are the two Rand books where objectivism is well explored. Not that I know much about it but I think you may have already figured it out in yatnayet anyways.
I am not sure if we are more “social” than the other social animals. I think we are rather individualistic and self centered as compared to the social ones. I am not sure if our anthropomorphic outlook is right or not either. However you may be right about kand bahir meqedat, when living together for long. The sell out inEn indiawem yabeshquNal. Keras kemeTalat, as Debebe said ” kezemen teTalto kezemen tekuarfo” yishal yimesleNal.
Ah the Indian films. narrating mother india to my parents made me earn a weekly allowance of one birr (yetegeNe gizE) and saved my ass from being flogged with qenubish, so named keteseqelechibet yemitwerdew yebeg menjia alenga. I cried not minding the asleqash tereb afterwards, I too loved my mother. True we and the indians have a lot in common, unfortunately for me the language is not one of them. I managed to build a hindi library from the movies, which togeteher with english subtitles made me the asterguami. I thought I knew the songs in most indian movies I saw by heart, numerous times shaibet tegolchE sangoragur eyewalku. youtube and online lyrics iskiyagalTuN I proudly carried the reputation and the nick kanchire. I am glad I did not try to impress Ms Santram (our english teacher), she would certainly have thought I am singing the hindi songs in argobiNa, for she knew amharic.
LOL IgzEr yiyilish, kiffu asasebshiN be obama gesture…
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abesheet | December 19, 2008 at 7:24 am
For some reason, I never had an Indian teacher in high school (there were only two indian teachers in Menelik the 2nd; one was a guy, mathematics I think and the other was an old lady they called “Mother Chemistry” or something. I was an “Art” Student). But I’ve heard of this 11gna kifil guy in “Qehas” who kissed his teacher and run “BeEreft seat”. They said she was so pretty her students were asking her why she didn’t become an actresss. Being a child must mean having all the time in the world for bullshit. You know? 😉 . We used to find stories like those fascinating that you don’t even need to be “from that school” to know them. There was, lemme see, HaHu and her gang from Kidane Mihret. “Eneza eyeteyayu yaleQsalu” yemibalut lijoch. That girl from “Zero Annd” whose boyfriend, friend of brother or something, much older, used to walk to the door, her baby-bump happily showing. There was “BiGuramwa” Alemtsehai the ‘findatas’ used to call ‘Fenendahu’ behind her back. Etcetera. Our world was so small anything would make the 6 O’clock news. I wonder which is better, now or then.
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Girum | December 20, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Abesheet, though my response is delayed, shall pass by my Thnx for the link. Actually, I had seen Ellen dancing with both the obamas. Mitchell doesn’t seem to have the right fit in that respect though.
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Shiro-tips | October 6, 2011 at 7:58 pm
All ’round well written blog post